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Tokyo library reaching out to foreign community
Whether to read a Pulitzer Prize-winning author in English, flick through global editions of Vogue magazine or delve into foreign encyclopedias, the Tokyo Metropolitan Library wants more foreigners to visit and take advantage of its free multilingual resources. The library, whose central branch is in Minato Ward, is running a campaign to make non-Japanese residents…
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Foreign suffrage bill bound for Diet
The Hatoyama government on Monday decided to submit to the ordinary Diet session that opens Jan. 18 a bill that would allow permanent foreign residents to vote in local elections. If the divisive bill is submitted, New Komeito and the Japanese Communist Party, two opposition parties that have called for such voting rights, are expected…
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Assemblies say ‘no’ to foreign suffrage
Fourteen prefectural assemblies have adopted statements opposing legislation that would give permanent foreign residents in Japan the right to vote in local elections, The Asahi Shimbun has learned. The statements were adopted from October to December after the Democratic Party of Japan, which favors foreign suffrage, took power from the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Of…
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New real estate guarantor service set up for foreign residents
A Tokyo non-profit organization has set up a new real estate guarantor service for foreign residents negotiating Japan’s notoriously discriminative housing system. The service, the first of its kind, is set up by the Information Center for Foreigners in Japan and will start offering guarantor services in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures in South Korean and…
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Social security policy should leave no one behind
The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)-led administration has called for a “shift from concrete to people” — spending taxpayers’ money on people’s livelihoods, rather than public works projects. This is reflected in the fiscal 2010 budget draft, but it suggests that the government desperately secured financial resources to carry out its election campaign pledges, rather…
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New pension body opens for business
Japan Pension Service, an organization set up to succeed the scandal-plagued Social Insurance Agency, started full operations Monday with a pledge to restore public trust in the public pension system. The names of 312 social insurance offices nationwide have been changed to pension service offices. The entity has drawn up 10 pledges to improve customer…
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Human rights in Japan: a top 10 for ’09
They say that human rights advances come in threes: two steps forward and one back. 2009, however, had good news and bad on balance. For me, the top 10 human rights events of the year that affected non-Japanese (NJ) were, in ascending order: 7) ‘Itchy and Scratchy’ (tied) Accused murderer Tatsuya Ichihashi and convicted embezzler…
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TELL counselors aiding expats, Japanese alike
Tokyo English Life Line, which has been providing free and anonymous English-language telephone counseling for more than 35 years, extends a helping hand to both expatriates and Japanese facing depression, suicide temptation, problems in cultural adjustment, relationships and the workplace, as well as health concerns. A nonprofit organization, TELL is associated with the Japanese-language telephone…
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For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk
For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit “capsule” hotels. “It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep,” he said, rolling his neck and stroking his black suit — one of…
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Population drops for 3rd year
Japan’s population fell by 75,000 in 2009, decreasing for the third straight year and dropping at the fastest rate since the end of World War II. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s annual population estimate, the pace of decrease accelerated in 2009 as the 1,144,000 deaths–an increase of 2,000 from 2008–outpaced the 1,069,000…